Greg Iwinski: Last News

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, running unopposed, has been elected president of the WGA East. Cullen, who until now had been VP of the guild’s Film/TV/Streaming sector, succeeds Michael Winship, who chose not to seek re-election.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members have elected Lisa Takeuchi Cullen as its new president. Cullen, who was an unopposed candidate for the posititon, takes over for outgoing president Michael Winship, who announced his decision to not seek reelection of his longtime post over the summer. “I am honored to become the next President of the Writers Guild of America East,” Takeuchi Cullen said in a statement.

TV late-night comedy scribe Greg Iwinski, 38, was still only an aspiring writer when Hollywood writers held their landmark strike in 2007-2008.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer WGA East president Michael Winship will not be seeking re-election amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “This is a decision that was made right from the start two years ago when I was asked to return to the presidency,” Winship said in a statement sent to guild members Tuesday, just as WGAE revealed the candidates up for officer seats in its upcoming council election this September.

The hand-drawn picket signs were, like several of the people carrying them, wrapped in waterproof plastic at a rain-soaked march in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. But a passer-by could still see the images: Bender, the cranky robot from Futurama; BoJack, the half-equine hero of BoJack Horseman; Courage, the pink-hued canine star of Courage the Cowardly Dog; and several more beloved cartoon and animation characters going back the original, Mickey Mouse. 

Late-night comedy writers are facing “oblivion” if the Writers Guild loses its eight-week-old strike, according to late-night comedy writer and WGA negotiating committee member Greg Iwinski, a former writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Late-night comedy has been in reruns, or off the air entirely, since day one of the Writers Guild’s strike. But many of their current and former writers have banded together to put on a weekly YouTube show called Contract TK that satirizes the news, lampoons the company bosses, and promotes the goals of the strike, which is now in its 38th day.

The voice of the WGA was represented loudly in Austin at the ATX TV Festival with various panels informing attendees about the issues of most importance to writers in the stalled negotiations with studios, like AI and staffing minimums—a set minimum number of writers that a series has to employ—as well as why production shutdowns during the ongoing strike are an important part of their fight for a fair deal.

ATX TV Festival had to change up many elements of their lineup. Specifically, they added a panel specifically about the strike, which began in May. On Saturday, Beau Willimon, the president of the Writers Guild of America, East, moderated a conversation between WGA West’s Zoanne Clack and Julie Plec and WGA East’s Greg Iwinski, who is on the negotiating committee. “We did not focus group, we did not go in and ask a management company what we should be asking for,” Iwinski, who has written on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” said at the top, explaining that they asked the 11,000 members what they were asking for and received 7,000 surveys back. “We brought these arguments to the studios and presented our solutions. And I had gone into the expectation that it would be a very difficult negotiation, and that we would be in a situation where we would be presented with a deal that was not great, but hard to say no to. And that is not what happened. We did six weeks of negotiations and at the end of it, we were still incredibly far apart.”

A group of high-profile writers including Julie Plec and new Station 19 showrunner Zoanne Clack opened up about the WGA strike and the main issues surrounding the walkout at the ATX Television Festival.

Late-night comedy shows were shut down on the very first day of the ongoing Writers Guild’s strike, but many of their now out-of-work writers are banding together to put on a weekly YouTube Channel show alternately titled “Picket Tonight” or “The Jokes You Love from the Picket Signs but We’re Saying Them Out Loud.”

Sophia Scorziello editor The ATX TV Festival has made changes to their program amid the ongoing writers strike, including the addition of the WGA on Strike! panel of leading television writers. The conversation will address the key issues that writers are fighting for as they share why the strike matters to Hollywood and entertainment unions at large. The panel will host Zoanne Clack (WGA West), Greg Iwinski (WGA East, negotiating committee), Damon Lindelof (WGA West) and Julie Plec (WGA West) and will be moderated by Beau Willimon (WGA East). The festival has cancelled select programs, including “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” the “Andor” conversation with Tony Gilroy, “Tiny Beautiful Things” conversation with Liz Tigelaar and Cheryl Strayed and the “Dawson’s Creek” 25th Anniversary Screening & Conversation.

The yearly ATX Television Festival will adjust its schedule to accommodate conversations about the ongoing writers strike, some of which will replace previously announced panels. The Austin-based event runs from June 1 – 4.

John Oliver can’t stop winning Emmys.